WASHINGTON — President Obama said Tuesday he supports the Senate efforts to forge a bipartisan immigration bill and urged lawmakers to move quickly to a vote.

"This bill is clearly a compromise, and no one will get everything they wanted, including me," Obama said in a statement. "But it is largely consistent with the principles that I have repeatedly laid out for comprehensive reform."

Obama's statement came after a White House meeting with Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and John McCain, R-Ariz.

"As I told Senators Schumer and McCain, I stand willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that comprehensive immigration reform becomes a reality as soon as possible," Obama said.

Schumer and McCain said they told Obama they will introduce a bill Tuesday night and pursue a final Senate vote by late May or early June.

"No one's going to get everything they want in the bill," Schumer told reporters at the White House. "Things are moving in a very, very good way."

McCain, who lost the 2008 presidential race to Obama, said the president is "very supportive" of their efforts, including plans for a full debate on all aspects of the immigration challenge. "This is the beginning of a process, not the end," he said.

Both senators said Obama expressed concern about delaying a final vote on the bill, saying chances of passage diminish the longer the process goes on.

Schumer and McCain — part of the so-called "Gang of Eight" within the Senate — said their plan is designed to tighten the nation's border security while offering a path to citizenship for immigrants who are in the country illegally.

Under the plan, the federal government could pump an additional $7 billion into securing the border with Mexico, the nation's 11 million unauthorized immigrants could become U.S. citizens in 13 years or less, and the country's legal immigration system would be fundamentally altered, reports USA TODAY.

In an op-ed for TheWall Street Journal, Schumer and McCain wrote that "this is the first step in what will be a very difficult but achievable process to fix the nation's broken immigration system once and for all. The legislation's approach is balanced: It is firm in cracking down on illegal immigration but sensible when it comes to legal immigration."

In his statement, Obama said the proposal "would continue to strengthen security at our borders and hold employers more accountable if they knowingly hire undocumented workers. It would provide a pathway to earned citizenship for the 11 million individuals who are already in this country illegally. And it would modernize our legal immigration system so that we're able to reunite families and attract the highly skilled entrepreneurs and engineers who will help create good paying jobs and grow our economy."

Even if an immigration plan clears the Democratic-run Senate, it must still pass the Republican-run House of Representatives.

Several congressional Republicans have criticized the proposed path to citizenship, describing it as amnesty for lawbreakers.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said lawmakers should not rush a bill that the Gang of Eight has worked on in private for months.

"We are talking about legislation that will impact virtually every aspect of our society, reshape our entire immigration system, introduce at least 30 million new foreign workers into the economy, and directly impact every single American worker and taxpayer," Sessions said.